There are many businesses, particularly in the service industry, where most, if not all, business transactions are carried out by means of a telephone conversation. As one would expect, such businesses typically create a high volume communications environment. One example where such a high volume communications environment exists is a reservations business such as an airline reservation business where a large number of calls are incoming to the business from the public. Another example where such a high volume communications environment exists is a telemarketing agency where a large number of calls are outgoing from the business to the public.
Such high volume communications environments often operate inefficiently because a finite number of resources from the business enterprise, such as reservations agents, are accessed by more requests from customers than they can handle. Another finite resource is a PBX (Private Business Exchange) or an ACD (Automated Call Distributor) which services incoming and outgoing calls from the business. Such equipment has finite capacities and, in a typical busy situation where there are more requests for resources than are available, blocking or queuing of the requests occurs. This is undesirable because a customer may temporarily be denied service and the business and/or the customer will accumulate telephone transmission charges while waiting. Further, and perhaps most important, no service is being provided during such waiting times.
Commercially available automated systems exist in the market which can handle telephonic functions such as answering calls, placing automated messages on a telephone line, and so forth. For example, Voice Processing Systems (VPS) presently available in the art automatically process transactions or distribute information to users over user interface lines. VPSs presently available in the art typically use Touch-tone, referred to as DTMF, as the means for receiving responses from a user, such responses generally taking the form of commands or input data. In addition, some VPSs are presently available which have the capability of using speech recognition (SR) techniques for receiving spoken user responses and for converting such spoken responses into commands or input data which is in a form that is compatible for computer use. The VPS typically translates customer responses and takes appropriate action is response to user requests or it requests the user to provide further information or further commands. Nevertheless, there is no automated system which interfaces on a logical basis so that it appears to interface between a telephone network, such as the public telephone network, on the one hand and customer's premises equipment, such as a PBX or an ACD, on the other hand to manage the incoming and outgoing calls so that human intervention is used only on those calls which cannot, for some reason, be handled automatically.
As a result, there is a need in the art for an automated call filtering apparatus which: (1) logically interfaces between a telephone network, such as the public telephone network, and customer premises equipment, such as business customer premises equipment; (2) automatically processes incoming and outgoing calls which are amenable to such intervention; and (3) enlists the aid of human intervention on calls which require human intervention.